Final Portfolio

The internship I have undertaken was a  PR position at the Quiksilver and Roxy Pro held at Snapper Rocks, Queensland between the 28th of February – 11th of March 2014. Please explore the day-to-day entries below,  posted throughout the event. And the tabs at the top of the website to read more about who I am, my overall experience and various images and videos I captured from the event. This website has been made as a creative piece for my final portfolio for 3531HUM- Public Relations Internship 1. 

 

News Article

I found this photo in a news article. I guess we weren’t the only ones taking photos all week.
We are looking a bit uninterested in this photo, but this was Day 1.

The Final Countdown.

Tuesday 11 March 2014- the final day of the Quiksilver and Roxy Pro.

A very, very long, busy day, working from 6.30am till 7.30pm, and I have completed my internship, and it was a ridiculous amount of fun!

The Organisers were determined to finish the competition today, and we did, crowning Stephanie Gilmore the 2014 Roxy Pro champion, and Gabriel Medina 2014 Quiksilver Pro Champion. It was definitely an exciting afternoon, the crowed was enormous and the atmosphere was incredible! And we were right in the middle amongst it!

I had a lot of interviews to get through! With so many heats on in the one day, today was non stop! We continued our rotation and worked together to ensure every heat was covered, and all the photos being uploaded were constantly tagged and a caption typed up. We were certainly busy, but I loved it and sad it has come to a close.

Wednesday the 12th of March was back to reality. Back to University and back to our everyday jobs (that do not include hot surfer boys and working on the beach). My body clock is still set to 5am and my summer glow achieved from the past two weeks is looking brown.

It was for sure, the best internship I could have done. A lot of work, and always busy, but so much fun, and amazing people to work with! I couldn’t have imagined doing it without Alex and Tegan, who after 2 weeks of spending everyday together, its hard not to become good friends. And our Media Team, Will and Amy, I will certainly miss them too! So friendly helpful, welcoming and encouraging, not sure if we could have got a better media team to work with.

The final day was, exhausting, to say the least! But I am definitely going to miss driving from Southport to Coolangatta everyday, early wake ups, yummy breakfast and lunch, late finishes, 8pm nights in bed and spending everyday by the beach!

It was the most incredible experience. I learnt So much and know it will definitely benefit me in the future and gaining further work experience down the track.

Group Photo: Amy, Me, Tegan, Alex and Will

Mick Fanning

I Captured this standing in the Interview zone after Mick’s Round 4 loss. (Never fear, he went on to win his Round 5 Heat.)

The Final Day (Maybe)

Today is the 11th Day in the competition window, and the ASP Commissioner so hoping to finish both the Roxy Pro and Quiksilver Pro today, with fears tomorrows surf will drop and wont be fit for the finals.

Today kicked off early, with the first heat of the Quicky Pro at 7.30am. Today is going to be a long, busy day, with possible crowning’s of Champions to follow late this afternoon.

Yesterday, too was a busy day. As we completed our usually heat interviews and Press Release blurbs. I also had a lot of photos to catch up on, tagging photos and writing captions for every photo uploaded from the ASP. A repetitive task, but certainly keeps you busy all day.

Crowded beach’s have definitely been here after numerous Lay days, which makes for a great atmosphere, particularly when Champions like Kelly Slater and Mick Fanning jump back in the water after a few days break.

It’s so great to get behind the scenes and chat with these World famous names!

Anyway, there is work to be done!

Too be continued…

I took this Photo standing with the spectators on Monday 10 March 2014

 

Day 11 at Snapper Rocks

As the end of competition creeps closer each day, the pressure is on to keep the heats moving along. Day 11, which means there is only 3 days to complete 14 hours of competition (pressure is on). 

A gloomy day at Snapper Rocks, the wind is up, a sky full of clouds and the surf looking messy. But with the call to made in an hour, I’m hopeful the surf will clear up and we can start the competition of the day.

I started the day with the usual newspaper and fruit pickup. A couple of coffee runs for our boss’s and a few runs to and from the production van and media centre, now all we can do i wait, and hope the officials make the call we are hoping for!

 

Here is a snap shot of my 5.30am drive to work (Not Fun)

The End is in Sight

Today is Day 9 of competition here at Quicksilver and Roxy Pro at Snapper Rocks. With only 3 more days to complete both the Roxy Pro and the Quicksilver Pro, the pressure is on the Waves to produce a nice Swell.

Consecutive lay days means all competitors are eager to get back into the water and perform, but whether we see the guys or girls in the water first is up to the organisers.  

As the call is not made till 10.30am, I once again started my day with the fruit and newspaper routine. Sifting through the daily papers to find anything related to the Event at Snapper Rocks. Until the heats start, there is not much mroe we can do, as much as we ask our boss how we can help, all anyone can do in the media centre is sit and wait. 

Here is a quick Snap I took from the media centre. Incredible to see the people in the water and on the rocks, only feet away from the surfers in competition.

Interview

A quick run down the beach was in order to ensure this interview was captured. Nothing can be predicted here at The Quicksilver Pro.

As the Days Go By

So we are 8 days into the first event on the ASP World Tour, as some very busy days have been had!

As the long hours take a toll on our body and minds, we became dependent coffee to get us through 10 and 11 hour days!
With the swell pumping, the Organisers wanted to get through as many heats as possible, which meant we would stay from start to finish, ensuring every heat was covered.

Watching the heats outside, standing in the belting sun was not all that fun. But interviewing the competitors after sort of made up for it. No matter how many times we do it, the feeling of standing in that restricted media area and making small talk with the surfers is still a pretty cool feeling, every time. It’s exciting to get up close and personal with the worlds best surfers and introduce yourself, tell them what you’re doing. Everyone always says our internship sounds pretty cool, and they’re right! I still think I’m pretty lucky to spend two weeks working the ASP media team and hanging out with people who love their job and what they do.

The media team we work for, particularly Will and Amy are so helpful in the feedback they give us on our work. The more press release’s we write, we start to get the hang of it, and the recognition for that is great! They also want us to get the most out of our internship and show us different parts of the event including the productions side, and the behind the scenes sort of stuff.

I also acquired another job working with the photographer of ASP. A simply yet tedious task of simply tagging and captioning every photo uploaded onto the ASP website. This simply meant constantly checking the site for the new photos that had been uploaded to the space, sift through each photo tagging the appropriate tags relating to the photo, and writing a caption and sending it onto photographer Kristen. 

8 days in and I’m still loving it. We have had a couple of lay days (no surf) so the event has not been run for a few days. However unfortunately this class isn’t usually made till 7.30am ish, which means a 45 minute drive down to Coolangatta still has to happen. We always have a few things that need to be done in the morning, but as there are no heats being run, there isn’t much work for us to do, and a 9am finish is in order. Which after the first few long days, is kind of a blessing.

Here is snapshot of the Last couple of days at The Pro

The News Paper Coverage Wall at Day 6

Happy Little Vegemite’s

Third Day at the Best Internship

Today, without a doubt the most exciting day thus far at The Pro.

The First round of the Quicksilver Pro kicked off at about 10.30am, which meant the men would be out and about, and we would be put to work.

Together the three of us, (Alex and Tegan) would work together to ensure each heat was watched and analysed, and a quote taken at the interview, then put together to form a blurb for the interview. The rotation worked out perfect and ensured we had a bit of time to perfect our piece. It was exciting and exhilarating to be amongst the action, especially when surfers like Kelly Slater, and Australians Josh Kerr and Taj Burrow were interviewed. It got pretty crazy there, but as we are apart of the ASP first priority is given to us, so standing with them, and light conversation is pretty exciting, and definitely an experience to remember!

Its so great having the opportunity to apply the skills I have learnt from course like Public Writing and Media Relations to a real life event and see it published in press release.

Our Media managers, Will (Hayden Smith) and Amy (Denman) are SO helpful and encouraging in the feedback they give us on our work. The only thing I have found is the way we have been instructed to write the press releases is pretty different to how we have been instructed at Uni. But I suppose that is just the nature of the industry and the event in question.

Of course, we still carried out are usual day to day activities, including collecting the fruit and newspapers for the Media Centre and working on our college wall of cut outs. A few coffee runs and lots of photocopying was done. But at the end of the day, the most exciting thing was seeing my own writing published in the official ASP Press Release of the day.

Here is an expert of some of my work published in the Press Release on 03/03/2014

Taj Burrow (AUS) utilised his 16 years of ASP WCT experience with cautious wave selection to dominate his opening heat scoring an 8.67 (out of a possible 10) on his first wave. Burrow got the best of opponents Miguel Pupo (BRA) and fellow Australian and 2014 rookie Dion Atkinson (AUS) who answered Burrow’s opener with a solid effort, but failed to find the backup score required to take 1st place. Burrow’s explosive start puts him straight through to Round 3.

Nat Young (USA), 2013 ASP Rookie of the year, reigned supreme over Sebastian Zietz (HAW) and Aritz Aranburu (EUK) leading the heat from start to finish. Opening his campaign in Heat 8 with a 7.00, Young was able to secure a win despite opponent Zietz trying to fight back midway through the bout, also scoring a mid-range 7. Unable to find the score to surpass the American, Young will head straight into Round 3.